Why did Europe choose the chaff over the wheat?

Patrick L Young is CEO of niche crowdfunding platform HanzaTrade and an advisor to fund managers throughout the world. Born in Ireland, he is an active investor in the “New Europe” amongst other emerging markets and is an active Co Founder of grassroots startup group "Mission ToRun."
Home Page: http://patricklyoung.net Twitter: @FrontierFinance

Engagement in Ukraine by the European Parliament has been clearly
apparent in recent years. Alas the transcripts provide an
unfortunate reminder that the size of the EU apparatus has
ultimately fed an incompetent blob as opposed to producing
rational decisions. An obsession with expansion at all costs of
the EU sphere of influence has dominated thought. Back on
December 13, 2012, the European Parliament passed a rather
chilling motion, made more acutely frightening by subsequent
events:

"The EU is concerned about the rising nationalistic sentiment
in Ukraine, expressed in support for the Svoboda Party, which, as
a result, is one of the two new parties to enter the Verkhovna
Rada; recalls that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go
against the EU's fundamental values and principles and therefore
appeals to pro-democratic parties in the Verkhovna Rada not to
associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party."

A year before the Maidan protests, the EuroParl had successfully
‘separated the wheat from the chaff.’ Tragically, by the
time the memo got up the chain of command (for want of a better
term), the EU ended up endorsing the chaff.

It’s not as if the EU was indolent in Ukraine - far from it.
While many western Europeans suffer a prevailing ignorance of
eastern Europe’s overlapping multiethnic strands that are
legacies of empire, the EU has become vociferously involved in
Ukraine in recent years. UK blogger, Richard North, who has been
at the forefront of analyzing EU inexactitude for years, recently
revealed the remarkable extent of EU activity. For anybody who
thinks the EU has an unparalleled ability to waste money, this
action may demonstrate a new nadir. As North notes:

“The EU spent €389 million on Ukraine between 2011 and 2013,
apportioning money to pressure groups such as 'the Agency for
Legislative Initiatives Citizens Association', and 'the
All-Ukrainian Non-Governmental Organization Committee of Voters
of Ukraine'. Some European taxpayer cash was also given to the
'All-Crimean Association of Voters for Civil Peace and
Interethnic Harmony'.”

Yes, you read that right. The EU’s unelected bureaucrats spent
nearly half a billion dollars supporting all manner of nebulous
NGOs, each expected to endorse the EU’s ongoing commitment
to...well whatever is the hipster cause du jour of the
metropolitan trendy classes who still believe ‘more Europe’ is
actually worthwhile. Or to put it another way, as Richard North
says:

"The EU was blundering into a situation with all the finesse
of a ballet dancer in size 12 boots.”

It takes a particular kind of hubris, cultivated over decades in
the Brussels bubble to be convinced that your comprehension of a
situation is better than the indigents’. The EU, like all
unaccountable undemocratic regimes, has convinced itself of its
delusion that the Brussels nanny super state always knows best,
despite being unable to balance its accounts, or manage its
flawed currency let alone help its citizens find jobs. Half a
billion dollars would surely have been welcomed to assist the
Mediterranean unemployed from 2011-2013. Why then was it poured
into a flawed odyssey promoting the EU as a land of milk and
honey?

Whereas those with perspective might now spot that the broad arc
of history appears to be moving away from Europe’s economic
hegemony with the US...alas the Brussels apparatus has finessed
the art of spending other people’s money to expand the European
empire to the point of complete delusion: funding puppet theaters
while hoping to create puppet Eurozone satellite states: aka
‘a tilting at wind farm’ policy led by Commissioner
Quixote. However, Brussels’ sphere of influence has now been
checked by its remarkably incompetent and typically extravagant
Ukrainian junket.

In Kiev, entirely contrary to the considered analysis of the Euro
Parliament, extremists have been encouraged to join a rainbow
coalition ranging from kleptocrats to wannabe eurocrats with an
unhealthy smattering of extremists in their midst. Even by the
consistently dismal standards of Ukrainian government, the EU
appears to have plumbed new depths. Then again it is challenging
to realistically assess the scale of the staggering inadequacy of
Europe’s foreign policy, led by the breathtakingly incapable
Catherine Ashton, an embarrassment in high office.

In a state of abject bankruptcy brought on by two decades of
utterly dysfunctional government (of different political shades
and orientation), the Ukraine now festers while Europe
grandstands over its fate.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.